{"id":11712,"date":"2015-09-01T07:41:58","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T12:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=11712"},"modified":"2015-09-01T07:41:58","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T12:41:58","slug":"civil-rights-group-backed-by-telecom-industry-seeks-to-block-net-neutrality-instantly-contradicts-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=11712","title":{"rendered":"Civil Rights Group Backed by Telecom Industry Seeks to Block Net Neutrality, Instantly Contradicts Itself"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"Post-title\" data-reactid=\".ti.1.0.0.4.0.1.0.1.0\"><a class=\"Post-title-link\" href=\"https:\/\/firstlook.org\/theintercept\/2015\/08\/31\/big-telecom-funded-civil-rights-group-joins-lawsuit-block-net-neutrality-instantly-contradicts\/\" data-reactid=\".ti.1.0.0.4.0.1.0.1.0.0\">Civil Rights Group Backed by Telecom Industry Seeks to Block Net Neutrality, Instantly Contradicts Itself<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mmtconline.org\/\">Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council<\/a>, an organization that<a href=\"http:\/\/mmtconline.org\/about-us\/\">says<\/a>\u00a0its purpose\u00a0is to advance \u201cequal opportunity and civil rights\u201d in the media, has faced\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/2013\/06\/06\/12769\/civil-rights-groups-fcc-positions-reflect-industry-funding-critics-say\">criticism<\/a>\u00a0in the past that the organization\u00a0acts as little more than a corporate front group.<\/p>\n<p>Two positions taken recently by MMTC suggest that such criticism is accurate: The positions contradict one another, but both reflect the desires of MMTC\u2019s funders.<\/p>\n<p>In August, MMTC joined an\u00a0industry-led lawsuit against net neutrality, filing a brief in support of the U.S. Telecom Association\u2019s lawsuit to overturn net neutrality.\u00a0The MMTC\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ustelecom.org\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/15-1063%20MMTC%20Amicus%20Brief%20080615.pdf\">brief<\/a>\u00a0claims that net neutrality\u00a0will deepen the digital divide, causing\u00a0millions of disadvantaged communities to\u00a0continue to lack Internet service because purported lower-cost solutions that violate open Internet principles will be blocked.<\/p>\n<p>But just months ago, MMTC lobbied for a radio industry-backed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fcc.gov\/document\/media-bureau-seeks-comment-waiver-petition-re-sponsorship-id-rules\">rule<\/a>\u00a0that rests on the assumption that Americans already enjoy equal access to the Internet.\u00a0In an April 13\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/apps.fcc.gov\/ecfs\/document\/view?id=60001043266\">letter<\/a>\u00a0to the Federal Communications Commission, MMTC supported a petition\u00a0by\u00a0radio station companies\u00a0that would allow broadcasters\u00a0to\u00a0move sponsorship information from on-air announcements to an\u00a0Internet database.<\/p>\n<p>How can MMTC claim that citizens can simply go online for radio sponsorship information in one breath, then claim it\u00a0is fighting net neutrality on behalf of millions of Americans without Internet access in\u00a0another? I\u00a0asked\u00a0MMTC for comment, but have not heard back.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not the first time MMTC has offered seemingly contradictory policy proposals.<\/p>\n<p>MMTC leader David Honig has\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/rbr.com\/mmtcs-honig-weighs-in-on-minority-ownership\/\">said<\/a>\u00a0on multiple\u00a0occasions that one of his primary goals is to combat \u201cthreats to minority ownership\u201d in the media industry.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Civil Rights Group Backed by Telecom Industry Seeks to Block Net Neutrality, Instantly Contradicts Itself The\u00a0Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, an organization thatsays\u00a0its purpose\u00a0is to advance \u201cequal opportunity and civil rights\u201d in the media, has faced\u00a0criticism\u00a0in the past that the organization\u00a0acts as little more than a corporate front group. Two positions taken recently by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[137,8615,8614,8613,3828,8612,5567],"class_list":["post-11712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-civil-rights","tag-david-honig","tag-mmtc","tag-multicultural-media-telecom-and-internet-council","tag-net-neutrality","tag-telecom-industry","tag-the-intercept"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11713,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11712\/revisions\/11713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}